News & Information for Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts

Main menu

Search form

You are here

"Spring" while baking

March 19, 2008 - 11:46am

suzanneulrich

"Spring" while baking

How do I get good oven spring? My loaves come out looking just like they did when I put them in. Am I not letting them rise enough, or too much? Did I exhaust my yeast? The crumb is a little dense, but not bad.

Sorry, I am new to this...I made a preferment that stood overnight (1/4 tsp yeast, 1 cup whole wheat flour, 1 cup water). In the morning I added 3/4 cup whole wheat flour and 1 1/4 cup Better for Bread (King Arthur) plus 3/4 tsp yeast, 1 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 cup water. I used a lightly floured board to set it on for degassing it after a 1 hour 15 min rise. I put it in a lightly oiled bowl to rise for about an hour. Then I degassed it again, shaped it into a ball and let it rise about 45 minutes - it was about doubled. Then I cut it on top with 4 cuts in a square shape on the top and put it in the oven at 450 for 10 minutes. I misted the top. I dropped the temp to 400 for the rest of the bake time - about 40 minutes total. After I wrote the first time I set a new sponge (let it ferment for 2 hours) and redid it adding some Italian seasonings. I used a sharper knife and had a better result, but not as good as when I look at the pictures I see on the website! Maybe I need to cut deeper than about 1/2 inch? I am at 6000 feet elevation and it is very very dry here. Is that a factor? What, if anything, should I be doing differently for the elevation? I might add, both loaves are very tasty and I would not be ashamed of serving them, I just don't get that extra spring I am looking for.

your reast might be very week by now and all available food for the yeast has been consumed.

try to cut out the second rise as in

perferment over nightmix final doughriseshape and risecut and bake.

as for cutting a single sided razor blade wouks wonders or you can get a n exacto knife from a crast store thay cost a little for the handle but the blades are replaceable and the handle will last a lifetime not to mention there as sharp as a scalple.

also dip whatever you use for cutting your bread in water each cut you will get a cleaner cut with pulling the dough.

The secret to very light bread with incredible oven spring is energetic mixing.I see on your pizza page that you took Artisan I and II at the San Francisco Baking Institute.I also too took Artisan I. Prior to Artisan I, I had been baking for several years. All of my loaves turnedout like bricks and non of them had oven spring. I had read about oven spring but had neveractually seen it. It was in Artisan I that I first witnessed oven spring. I was amazed at how 100% of the baguettes that the students loaded into the oven puffed up. It was incredible. I, with my own hands, formed loave which inflated like balloons.What had I been doing wrong all these years? Loaf after loaf had oven spring.When I got home from Artisan I, I hit a brick wall. I followed the instructions to the letter.Here was the basic recipe that I was using:

mix 2.5 minutes on first speedmix 5 minutes on second speedlet ferment in covered container 1 hourdivide and preshape and let rest 20 minutesshape loaves and proof for 1 hourbake at 485F for 18 minutes

I loaded this into my KitchenAid Artisan mixer and mixed it the same amount of time as inschool. I followed the procedures EXACTLY as I had done them in class. To my amazement,there was no oven spring. My bread was dense and heavy. For several months I tried loaf after loaf.

At first I thought it was the lack of a steam oven, but that wasn't the problem.Then it occurred to me....GLUTEN WINDOW!!! The instructor would pick up a piece of doughright after mixing and he would streatch it and it would form a gluten window.I tried to do the same thing using my KitchenAid but the dough would fall apart.....no gluten window.My dough was grainy with no gluten window. The dough that I had seen in baking schoolwas silky smooth and showed a gluten window right off the mixer. So I decided to letmy poor KitchenAid mix and mix. After about 45 minutes I got to the silky smooth dough.I pulled off a piece of dough and got a decent gluten window.So then I realized.......the problem is mixing time.....the mixers at baking school are veryeffecient spiral mixers.....mixing time on my KitchenAid took much longer.I baked some loaves and got some oven spring but it wasn't like in baking school.But that's when I realized that making light bread is ALL ABOUT THE MIXING!I decided that I needed a better mixer but I didn't want to spend $1,300 on theschool's mini spiral mixer. So I decided on the Bosch Universal Mixer. Then my breadstarted turning out great. Light and fluffy with great oven spring.The Bosch has a strong motor and twirls and streatches the dough over and over.The Bosch mixes the above recipe to perfect gluten development in 22 minutes.I load all the ingredients into the bowl and mix for about 5 seconds.I let the flour absorb the water (about 5 minutes) then crank up the Bosch to speed 3.I don't use any other speed.....just the fastest speed.After 22 minutes I get a perfect dough. This is the secret to making light, fluffy bread! Nobody here seems to get it (except SevenB).

Sure, this doesn't guarangee great bread.....but without understanding of gluten development,you will never have light bread with good oven spring.

Gluten development is tricky. On my Bosch I have noticed the following:

less than 19 minutes will give a very weak or no gluten window.....the dough will just pull apart with no gluten window.at 21 minutes and 30 seconds, there is nice oven spring and the cuts open up nicelyat 25 minutes there is even more oven spring and the bread is even lighter....but the cuts don't open explode like they do at 21 or 22 minutespast 30 minutes the dough starts to turn to chewing gum with no gluten window....it feels like melted wrigley's chewing gum on hot asphalt (this is overdeveloped dough)at 21 minutes and 30 seconds, the crumb is more open with bigger holes, at 25 minutes the structure is finer with fewer big holes.

Any hydration between 65% and 80% will have the same mixing time.These mixing times are for my Bosch mixer loaded with the 500grams of flour recipe.If you change the amount of dough, you will probably have to adjust the mixing time.If you use a different mixer, you need to find the point at which you get a gluten windowright off the mixer and work from there to determine your own mixing times.As we have seen, a KitchenAid will not work...it's just not energetic enough.Preferments and autolyse will shorten mixing time and mess with gluten development.....but to start out I urge youto work with just straight dough.....no autolyse, no preferment.....this will lead youto understanding of gluten development. Worry about flavor after you undestand gluten development.

The french went through all this in the 1950's. There was a revolution when they discovered thatenergetic mixing makes light fluffy bread. Then in the 70's there was another revolution back to the old ways.Although energetic mixing does give light bread, it oxidizes the dough and makes it whiter and less flavorful.You have to find the balance between flavor and lightness.

All other factors aside, mixing time is the most important. Without it you will have dense bread. It might be full of flavor but it will be dense.

If you just mix flour and water by hand and let it sit a while, you will get a gluten window. Don't be fooled.....your must form a gluten window right off the mixer....if you can't get a gluten window off the mixer, change mixers!

The reason that you need to develop the dough to the right point is so the gluten will perform like a bunch of tiny balloons. The elastic balloons retain gas and puff up. Baking bread without developed gluten is like trying to blow up a balloon with a bunch of holes in it.

Tips1: adding 17grams of butter to the above recipe will give a softer crust and a less chewy crust.

Tip 2: I always ferment this recipe for 1 hour. Normal proofing time for a baguette is 1 hour. BUT....you can proof this dough for up to 6 hours and it will not deflate. After 6 hours of proofing your bread will be as light as a cloud. To do this, ferment bread 1 hour then divide dough and place dough on a baking sheet and put the sheet inside a garbage bag. Let it be for 4 to 6 hours and carefully remove the baking sheet with bread from the bag. Put baking sheet in oven without disturbing the loaves and you will have cloud bread.

I have almost always done only two risings. I also don't slash since I generally make sandwich bread or challah when I'm making loaves. I have found that two risings works perfectly and that if I put them in the oven before it reaches peak temperature, the loaves get an extra boost. This seems to be especially true if I forget and let them rise too long the second time. (proofing) I've read that the rising temp makes the yeast go for one last hurrah before dying. This is just my experience and I am far from an expert, but I hope it helps.

Thanks everyone for your comments! WOW. I am excited about mixing and mixing and mixing and mixing my next loaf. I didn't know about dipping the blade before slicing. I will follow all the good advice and relate my experience.

suzanneulrich's Recent Blog Entries.

All original site content copyright 2017 The Fresh Loaf unless stated otherwise. Content posted by community members is their own. The Fresh Loaf is not responsible for community member content. If you see anything inappropriate on the site or have any questions, contact me at floydm at thefreshloaf dot com. This site is powered by Drupal and Mollom.